Marketing Tactics 101: 7 Small Business Marketing Tips

Small Business Marketing Tactics

While there seems to be a lot of success in social media marketing, is that the only kind of marketing strategy a small business should be engaging in?

Good question! There certainly are other ways that small businesses can make the most of their marketing budget and ad spend.

Let’s dive in and find out more about some of the best small business marketing tactics.

1. Don’t Be Afraid of PPC in your marketing tactics

Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing might seem daunting for small business owners who don’t quite grasp the concept of paid ads.

If it’s free to upload content to social media platforms, then why would you invest in paid ads? Can’t people see my content already?

The answer is simple. The only people that see your content are those you are connected to on social media. If you want to reach a larger audience than your own connections, you must sponsor ads. They’re a great way to reach users who are already looking for something you offer. This means that, if they’re searching for something online, they’re typically ready to buy or almost ready to buy.

PPC ads are especially great for small, local businesses who are trying to target users in a specific geographical location with a specific product or service. The best part is that you only pay when a user clicks on your ad, not just when they see it.

In order to have a positive return on your PPC investment, you must get to know your target audience, do some keyword research, and target those who need your product or service.

2. Optimize Your Content for small business marketing

Optimizing your website and blog content is one of the most cost-effective marketing ideas around. And with a few days of learning from free resources online, you can do many keyword and SEO optimizations online, on your own, for free!

But great content is really key. In the world of modern small business marketing, content is king. That’s right, copywriting does matter.

Focus all of your efforts on publishing quality content to your website that drives engagement and value to your viewers. Quality content helps position you as an expert in your industry and will help build loyalty over time.

Publish relevant content that provides your readers with actual value. This means answering their questions, helping them solve problems, and giving them high-quality and engaging lists or guides.

It also helps to do a little keyword research beforehand to ensure your target audience can find your content in the first place.

3. Join Discussion Forums as a Tactic for Marketing

Quora is a great platform where you can position yourself and your small business as an expert in your field by responding and answering questions that are relevant to your industry.

Not only that, but you’ll be able to link back to your website, which helps enhance your SEO efforts by adding more backlinks to your website and pushes your website further toward the top of search results.

To do this, you’ll want to avoid being too overly-promotional while still ensuring that you’re giving high-quality answers and advice to people who have the potential to convert into customers.

4. Create Shareable Infographics as a Marketing Tactic

People love sharing images and visual-rich content, especially entertaining or informative content. Even though this is true, many small business owners overlook the value of infographics.

To develop one of the best marketing strategies for small businesses, you definitely can’t overlook the value of an informative infographic.

Why? It’s easily shareable and it’s something that other companies and individuals will share on their website or social media pages.

Each time a new set of stats comes out that’s relevant to your industry, create an infographic using free software like Canva. Publish it, then watch as others share it on their own websites and blogs.

5. Create User-Generated Content as a Marketing Tactic

One of the least expensive and most creative small business ideas is to let users create your marketing content for you.

As a small business, it’s likely that you don’t have a large marketing budget. That shouldn’t deter you from engaging in marketing!

Hold a contest to let your users create a 30-second ad for your small business Instagram account. Award the best ad with a prize you’ve purchased through a trade network like Saturn Barter. Or, offer discounts for users who upload video testimonials to your website’s testimonial page.

This means that there’s a lot of value in having a real person tell other potential customers just how great your company is.

6. Form Valuable Partnerships as a Tactic for Marketing

There’s a lot of value in co-marketing, especially if you’re partnering with a company who shares the same value as yours.

As part of the small business community, this is a great way to help other businesses out while benefitting from each other.

What does this look like? You can:

Create a YouTube series that mixes your two companies. If you sell pizza and partner with a local kitchen supply store, then you’re able to promote your two products.

Hold contests that require users to like and share each company’s social media pages.

Partner with a non-profit that supports a cause you’re genuinely passionate about.

If you sell jewelry, partner with an environmentally-focused non-profit. Share a portion of the revenue while enjoying the marketing you get from having them publish your products.

This marketing tactic is great for small businesses as it can yield twice the marketing exposure for half the marketing budget.

7. Offer to Write Guest Posts as a Small Business Strategy

Guest posting on other blogs and websites is a cost-effective way of building your brand.

Again, like forming a partnership with other brands, you’ll need to be mindful of the brands you’re choosing to work with. Make sure their product or service isn’t related to yours while also ensuring that their existing audience still might be interested in what your small business has to offer.

If done right, this can be a great asset to a link building strategy, and it works as free marketing. Avoid being overly-promotional with the guest posts and ensure that they provide the same amount of value to readers as the content you publish on your own website.

Using Marketing Tactics to Create a Strategy

Using small business marketing tactics is a great way to build your brand without breaking your budget. You can also use the tactics to help you figure out what kind of a marketing strategy is going to work best for your company and its goals.

Struggle to craft a solid strategic marketing strategy? Contact us today for a free consultation. We’ll provide you with a strategy that will launch your business to the next level, saving you time and money while you’re at it. Then, with a solid strategy, we’ll help you build a marketing plan and implement all of those changes.

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Olive Group believes in a better way to do business marketing. Based around the concepts of client partnership and business integrity, Olive Group utilizes a unique marketing strategy with each client that allows us to understand what each client needs, why they exist, who they are truly targeting, and what executions need to take place to make those strategies come to life.